The Chinese DongFeng 21 anti-ship ballistic missile is going to be a heaven-sent gift for the people at Lockheed Martin. In fact, I am betting that the U.S. Navy is currently tasking them to come up with a major upgrade to their AN/SPY-1 radar systems to allow detection and targeting of this new threat.
The DF-21 is also going to provoke a rush to buy countermeasures. All of which means good things for Navy budgets. Which is a bad thing.
The best countermeasure for this kind of weapon is more small, high-speed, inexpensive, and capable ships. Unfortunately, the US has twice proven itself totally incompetent at building such ships, first with the Legend-class National Security cutters for the US Coast Guard, and then for the Littoral Combat Ships for the Navy.
Related Articles
- Lockheed Martin’s First Littoral Combat Ship Cracks, Navy Says (businessweek.com)
- U.S. Navy Takes Stance on Chinese Defense (time.com)
